VCE Maths Formula Sheets: What Is on Them and How to Use Them

Each sheet lists formulas under the main topics of your subject's Units 3 and 4, the Year 12 half of the course. VCAA posts a copy for each exam on your subject's exam page.

• General Mathematics (formula sheet, PDF): data analysis, recursion and financial modelling, matrices, and networks and decision mathematics.
• Mathematical Methods (formula sheet, PDF): mensuration (areas and volumes), calculus, probability and sample proportions.
• Specialist Mathematics (formula sheet, PDF): mensuration, complex numbers, data analysis, probability and statistics, calculus, kinematics, vectors and circular functions.

The current sheets are dated 2024, and VCAA can publish new ones, so before your exams you can open the exam page for General, Methods or Specialist and check the year printed on the sheet.

What the sheet leaves out is everything around the formulas: which one a question needs, and the working that gets you from the formula to an answer. VCAA's report on the 2024 Methods Exam 1 (Word document) noted that on one question “some students gave the formula as stated on the formula sheet with values relevant to the question”, but many didn't go on to finish the calculation correctly.

A bound reference is one book of notes, which the exam specifications (Word document) describe as “a textbook, a securely bound lecture pad, an exercise book or a permanently bound student-constructed set of notes without foldouts”. It's allowed in reading time as well as writing time.

The rules are mostly about how it's bound. VCAA's authorised materials page for 2026 says it “must be in book format of A4 size or smaller when closed” and “must have permanently bound pages that are securely attached to the spine”. It needs a single spine, bound with cloth, glue, staples, a spiral or a comb.

A teacher from your school checks each reference as you enter the exam room. If a page comes loose during the exam, the supervisor removes it and reports it as a possible breach of the rules. You can ask your maths teacher to look over yours before exam week. VCAA publishes these rules each year, so for 2027 exams the 2027 version is the one to check.

One way to get used to the sheet is to print it and keep it beside you whenever you do exam questions, so you learn where each formula sits and how it's written.

Past exams for the current course are free on the same subject pages, under “Examinations relating to the current study design”. For Methods and Specialist, past Exam 1 papers are worth doing with the formula sheet and nothing else, because that's how you'll sit it.

As you work, you can keep two short lists: the formulas you looked up, and the ones you needed that weren't on the sheet. The second list is what to learn, or, for exams that allow it, what to add to your bound reference. Since the sheet will already be on your desk, your bound reference doesn't need to copy it. If a formula on the sheet looks different from the way your class writes it, your teacher can show you how the two match.

Sometimes you can find the right formula on the sheet and still not get the question out. Your maths teacher is the first person to ask, and you can bring the past exam question with you. The report VCAA publishes beside each past exam is free too, and it gives the marks students got on each question and the mistakes many of them made.

If a topic still isn't clicking after that, one-to-one tutoring can give it more time. TMJ tutors work with students in VCE General Mathematics, Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics, following your school program, at home or online.

By exam day, the formula sheet doesn't have to be something you read for the first time. It can be a page you've already worked beside many times, so you know what's on it and what you're bringing yourself.

Do older past exams come with the same formula sheet?

Not quite. The October and November 2023 papers use the current course, but their sheets came before the redesigned ones VCAA released in August 2024 so students could “become familiar with the new accessible design and layout”. Older exams were written for a previous study design (the official outline of what each subject covers), and VCAA notes they are “not necessarily a guide to the current VCE examination”. You can still practise with them, keeping the current sheet beside you.

Can I bring my own sheet into Methods or Specialist Exam 1?

No. The specifications rule out “notes of any kind”, and you'll be given the sheet with the paper.

When are the maths exams, and how long are they?

VCAA sets each exam's date in its exam timetable for the year. The 2026 General, Methods and Specialist exams run from 30 October to 11 November. After 15 minutes of reading time, each General exam has an hour and a half of writing, and Methods and Specialist have one hour for Exam 1 and two hours for Exam 2. Our guide to the 2027 VCE exam timetable lists the 2027 dates.

Does Foundation Mathematics have a formula sheet?

Yes. VCAA published a Foundation Mathematics sheet alongside the others in 2024, and its one exam also allows a bound reference and a scientific calculator. Our guide to choosing VCE maths explains how the four maths subjects differ.

We checked these official sources on 6 November 2026.